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In order to examine the art of photography, you have to start by looking at the glass. “It’s the heart of the camera,” explains one lens-maker in director Michael Apted’s (The Up Series) latest documentary Bending the Light.

Apted’s film gives audiences a rare glimpse inside a premier Japanese lens factory and features interviews with celebrated photographers and cinematographers like Stephen Goldblatt, Greg Gorman, Richard Barnes, and Laura El-Tantawy in his study of the relationship between the artist and their tools.

Insider movies on EW.

Peter Sorcher, an award-winning San Francisco based director and editor has joined Saville for commercial and branded content representation in North America. Peter is best known for his storytelling style, which blends cinematic filmmaking with branding, creating a unique visual language.

Peter’s visually stunning ad for photo app SpeakingPhoto was recently featured as Adweek’s “Ad of the Day.” His ability to seamlessly interweave the stories of three diverse characters creates a beautiful piece of genuinely human storytelling.

Peter’s powerful and inspiring documentary short “I Want to Say,” a Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Hewlett-Packard collaboration, shows his ability to weave hours of footage into a poignant piece. As part of the Autism Speaks initiative, the documentary chronicles the lives of autistic children, focusing on the use of innovative technology to empower and give those with autism a voice. The film was short listed for the Platinum Lion Award in Cannes in 2012 and the AICP Next Awards.

His feature directorial debut “Eat the Sun,” a full-length documentary film about the ancient practice of sungazing, screened at film festivals around the world. The film went on to win the Jury Award for best documentary at the Chicago United Film Festival.

Saville’s Executive Producer Rupert Maconick adds, “Peter’s work spotlights his excellent ability to connect a branding message to real people and their stories. Brands are moving away from traditional advertising, transitioning into docu-style spots. Peter is a great addition to the team as brands are looking for real imagery and authentic moments to connect to their consumer base.”

SourceECreative

Showing how mobile apps and devices improve your (apparently action-packed) daily life has become one of the biggest tropes in tech advertising, and yet it’s still rare to find ads that do it well.

In the past week alone, we’ve seen the industry’s biggest giants roll out more spots along this theme, with Apple detailing the parental benefits of the iPhone and Google showing how Android can now follow you through every waking moment of your life.

The problem is, those aren’t really stories. They’re just strung-together, pre-fab product demonstrations.

That’s why the relatively little-known app SpeakingPhoto deserves credit for partnering with production company Sorcher Films to create a spot that interweaves several diverse storylines into one ad without ever feeling overcrowded or oversold.

The spot follows a teen’s reluctant visit with his grandfather, an architect’s trip to a work site and a woman’s solo bike journey. While the stories aren’t real, they’re a nice and relaxing reprieve from the rapid-tempo, look-how-cool-your-life-could-be vibe the rest of the industry seems to be going for these days.

Click to view ad on Adweek.

Mother has a created a new global Campaign for Stella Artois called ‘The Perfectionists’. The series follows experts involved in the Stella sponsorship portfolio; coming up are films that focus on Wimbledon and the British Open golf championship in Hoylake.

The first in the series is Wim Wenders’ Rules of Cinema Perfection, shot during this year’s Cannes film festival.

Winner of the Palm d’Or and director of highly acclaimed films Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, Wenders takes us through his all time list of of do’s and don’ts for film makers.

Continue reading on LBBonline.

Adidas has launched its £50m-plus global World Cup ad campaign featuring stars including Lionel Messi and a new track by rapper Kanye West.

The TV ad campaign will break for the first time during the half-time break of the UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

Adidas is positioning the campaign as the biggest global push in the company’s history.

This means the media spend is likely to be well in excess of £50m, although the company would not confirm this.

The ad, called Leo Messi’s World Cup Dream, has been directed by City of God’s Fernando Meirelles.

Using the strapline “All in or Nothing” the campaign features some of the world’s best footballers, including Luis Suarez and Dani Alves.

“Giving anything less than everything will not win the World Cup,” said Tom Ramsden, global brand marketing director for Adidas football. “We are incredibly proud of this film and the entire ‘all in or nothing’ campaign.”

Continue reading on The Guardian.

Adidas is taking an unusual approach to engendering loyalty among social media followers by encouraging them at the end of its star-studded World Cup ad to opt out of CRM initiatives and Twitter updates if they can’t demonstrate they “understand Adidas’s philosophy and approach to football”.

Adidas is taking an unusual approach to engendering loyalty among social media followers by encouraging them at the end of its star-studded World Cup ad to opt out of CRM initiatives and Twitter updates if they can’t demonstrate they “understand Adidas’s philosophy and approach to football”.

The final frame of the Youtube ad will ask people to click ‘all in’ or ‘nothing’ buttons, a reference to the campaign’s ‘all in or nothing’ name. Those that choose ‘all in’ will be connected “to everything Adidas has to offer” on Twitter and via CRM initiatives during the World Cup but those that choose ‘nothing’ will, not.

In a statement, Adidas says: “If consumers decide against joining adidas and its FIFA World Cup communication, Adidas is happy to let them leave the team as it focuses on quality over quantity in its social media audiences.”

The ‘all in or nothing’ campaign is Adidas’s biggest ever campaign in terms of media spend. It is led by a TV ad (see above) called ‘Leo Messi’s World Cup Dream’ starring brand ambassador’s such as the titular Argentinean striker, Dani Alves and Luis Suárez and features a track by Kanye West.

Tom Ramsden, global brand marketing director of Adidas football, says: “This advert presents the “#allin or nothing” attitude by showcasing the dedication and commitment required to winning this great tournament. Giving anything less than everything will not win the World Cup. At Adidas, we believe the only way to play sport, unlock your potential and get the most out of the biggest event in sport is to be ‘all in’.”

The TV ad, which was created by TBWA/Worldwide and directed by City of God’s Fernando Meirelles, breaks during coverage of tonight’s (23 May) Champions League final and is backed by social, in-store, and e-commerce pushes as well as experiential and PR activity that will see a branded media hub on display throughout Brazil.

Continue reading on Marketing Week.

Official sponsor Adidas has today launched the first part of its World Cup advertising campaign: a film directed by Fernando Meirelles that sees Lionel Messi experience an edgy and exciting World Cup dream.

The spot is directed by Meirelles, famed for directing City of God, alongside co-director Cassiano Prado. It was created by ad agency TBWA and is set to an exclusive track by Kanye West.

Continue reading on Creative Review.

Paul Haggis is not only an Oscar-winning film director and screenwriter, he’s also a man of deep conviction who has worked to improve the lives of some of the world’s poorest people by raising millions of dollars for Haiti.

Paul wrote the screenplay for the film “Million Dollar Baby,” which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2004, and he wrote and directed “Crash,” which won Best Picture in 2005. A supporter of marriage equality, Paul also famously left the Church of Scientology in 2009 after disagreeing with its support of Proposition 8, a California state amendment that asserted marriage should only be sanctioned “between a man and a woman.”

In this ONE ON ONE interview, Paul states his belief that fame must be used to bring attention to worthy causes.

Continue reading on Huffington Post.

Award-winning director Tom Schlagkamp has signed with Saville Productions for exclusive commercial directorial representation in North America. Tom’s breakthrough short film Rock ‘n’ Roll Manifesto was awarded first place at the Cannes Young Director Awards 2013. Written and directed for the German music magazine VISIONS, Rock n’ Roll is a vignette storytelling piece narrated by Pantera’s Phil Anselmo. The film was widely lauded as a riveting and gritty visual ode to the bona fide “blood, sweat and tears” behind the rock lifestyle.

Based in Berlin, Tom began his career as a sound and light technician. He transitioned from music into film through RTL Germany. From editing and motion graphics design, he began shooting commercials, shorts and music videos, including campaigns and movie trailers for films such as The Bourne Conspiracy, Borat, X-Men. Tom went on to study directing at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. He was quickly singled as a rising director in showcases around Germany for his authentic kinetic style.

Saville Executive Producer, Rupert Maconick adds, “Tom adds a raw, real visual style and shows a deep understanding of storytelling. He is able to find creative solutions for smaller budgets as shown in his Rock spot, which won at Cannes. This makes him an even stronger contender for clients and agencies.”

As a young, creative visionary, Tom’s work is driven by the interconnecting parts of the film process, from developing the script to bringing in the elements of music and sound design, and facilitating different ways to shoot to bring a story to life. He brings a style that is both strikingly visual and highly conceptual.

Let us use the arrival of “Le Week-End”—a wistfully rendered yet often barbed account of longtime marrieds who find themselves dissatisfied and drifting apart while on an anniversary trip to Paris—to salute a filmmaker who rarely gets the credit he deserves: Roger Michell.

At 57, Michell is the youngest and most unsung of a trio of distinctively British directors whose film work began receiving global attention in the ’90s. Mike Newell made his presence known with 1994’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, scoring Oscar nods for best picture and screenplay. John Madden topped that feat with 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love”, winning seven Oscars including best picture. Michell’s breakout arrived in 1999, when his romantic comedy “Notting Hill” turned into one of the highest-grossing British films of all time with a worldwide box office of $364 million. His involvement, however, was somewhat overshadowed by the sight of Julia Roberts playing a version of herself as a renowned actress opposite a smitten Hugh Grant. While there have been other hits among Michell’s 11 films—his first, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” in 1995, was a well-received TV movie released in theaters overseas—there also have been notable misses.

Most recently, his “Hyde Park on Hudson” was done in by the unpalatable displays of FDR’s extracurricular love life. But the biopic at least succeeded on a smaller scale as an intriguing private portrait of a public marriage. Specifically, that of an insecure King George VI (Samuel West), the stutterer who was the subject of “The King’s Speech”, and his nagging wife (Olivia Colman), the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, as they visited the president’s upstate New York retreat as World War II threatens. That royal gem of a union, as well as the interplay between West’s King and Bill Murray’s FDR, managed to save the show.

As exemplified by that effort as well as 2002’s “Changing Lanes”, a road-rage drama, and 2006’s “Venus”, about an aged actor who lusts after an insolent young woman, Michell is often at his best when dealing with characters who find themselves under stress or attempting to seek common ground with an onscreen counterpart. When Michell is on his game, as he definitely is with “Le Week-End”, he unearths small, invaluable and even profound truths about the human condition that are often as inspiring as they are devastating.

Continue reading at RogerEbert.com.